Message from Bishop David Anderson  Bishop Anderson Dear Brothers and Sisters in the Anglican family, Over the last few months, the Anglican Mission and its relationship with the Anglican Province of Rwanda has been a subject of intense interest on blogs and internet postings. Various letters have circulated, and most of you have read them. This week, the Archbishop and Primate of Kenya and chairman of the GAFCON Primates Council, Eliud Wabukala, released a communique from the recent meeting in Nairobi between representatives of several Anglican provinces in Africa including Rwanda, and the Anglican Mission (AMiA) chairman, Bishop Chuck Murphy, and AMiA Suffragan Bishop John Miller. At the same time, the statements and papers from the Anglican Mission Winter Conference are now available, as is a communique from the Raleigh meeting of Archbishop Onesphore Rwaje and the House of Bishops of the Anglican Province of Rwanda (PEAR) representatives, Bishops Alexis Bilindabagabo, Laurent Mbanda, and Louis Muvunyi, as well as US bishops Thad Barnum and Terrell Glenn. Archbishop Robert Duncan and Bishop Julian Dobbs of the Anglican Church of North America (ACNA) joined the assembly in Raleigh as honored guests with many clergy and laity wishing to remain tied to Rwanda. I am admittedly a bit perplexed, since the pieces do not match up well. Perhaps you are better at seeing a seamless garment in all of this, but I haven't grasped it yet. To me, it looks like different people still have different versions of what was or was not agreed upon, and that doesn't augur well for things working out nicely. I am also perplexed by how three retired Anglican Primates, Emmanuel Kolini, Yong Ping Chung, and Moses Tay, can extend to the Anglican Mission the type of Anglican bona fides and connectivity that their prior relationship with the Province of Rwanda provided. Yes, it is gracious of the three former Primates to come together to offer oversight to the Mission, but the concept of a personal prelature isn't really Anglican, and certainly not when the individuals are retired and out of office. They are still bishops of the Church of God, here and in the hereafter, but in retirement their prior authority and power has been given to their successors, and they function in their episcopal office at the direction of their College of Bishops and current Primate. The Anglican principle is that everyone in authority is under proper authority, and no one is above that authority.

I pray all this gets sorted out quickly, and proper connections are reestablished. Meanwhile, I wish the new Rwandan/former AMiA bishops Thad Barnum and Terrell Glenn and those who will work with them in North America the very best, and indeed I wish my colleagues in the Anglican Mission the very best, but do wish that they would come back and reunite with both Rwanda and the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA). In closing, I note that the spiritual and theological fractures that split the Episcopal Church and are currently threatening the entire Anglican Communion are also splitting the Lutheran Church and now, most recently, the Presbyterian Church USA. The issue of whether to adhere to basic orthodoxy is causing a tectonic fracture across much of Christendom as it exists today. I pray that we might remain faithful to the received Gospel of Jesus unto the end and be found faithful by him at his return. Amen. Faithfully in Christ, +David The Rt. Rev. David C. Anderson, Sr. President and CEO, American Anglican Council